Taking the Strain Out of Pursuing Higher Education

Lansdowne Foundation Removes Tuition Worries for Financially Strapped Graduate Students

Rosita Najmi has spent her life serving others. In elementary school, she didn't have enough money to buy her teacher a gift at the end of the year so she led her classmates in donating $2 apiece to buy something they all could point to with pride. During college, she spent her summers in West Africa and began a nonprofit organization aimed at improving the health of the residents of a village. She spent a year after college volunteering at a nonprofit group that provides immigration counseling to women and girls who have been victims of persecution in their home country.

She even chips in toward the cost of her parents' health care.

And now, when she needs it, someone is helping her.

Najmi, 25, is one of 34 graduate students to receive a full scholarship from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation's Graduate Scholarship Program. The Lansdowne-based organization will help the students pay for tuition, room, board and fees for up to six years. The awards -- which are capped at $300,000 per student -- are some of the most generous in the country.

"The students we select demonstrate that one can come from a lower-income or middle-income background and be every bit as good as other American students," said Joshua Wyner, the foundation's executive vice president.

For a student such as Najmi, who lives in Vienna and will begin graduate work at Harvard Business School next week, not having to worry about paying for school has broadened her opportunities. She scrapped the list of odd jobs she was considering and has started focusing on which student organizations she will join.

"This was really my last hope," said Najmi, who was a finalist for other scholarships. "I can't explain to you. I weighed a 100 pounds lighter."

Najmi's mother, pregnant with her, fled Iran to escape religious persecution for being a member of the Baha'i faith. They immigrated to the United States when Najmi was a toddler. Her three older siblings worked full time through high school to supplement the family budget, and they put themselves through college. Najmi earned scholarships and grants to attend Wake Forest University, from which she graduated with degrees in economics, politics and French.

During summers in college, she raised money to fund a nonprofit organization, Project Bokonon. The group has provided equipment for a medical clinic and public health education in the African country of Benin.

After working at the World Bank for the past two years as a consultant, Najmi said she realized how important a graduate degree would be to her efforts with the underprivileged. She also believes that the opportunity for higher education is something she wouldn't have had in Iran.

"Because I can, I owe it to all the people who can't," Najmi said.

Matthew Loftus, 20, of Bel Air is another recipient of a Cooke scholarship. He has started taking classes at the University of Maryland Medical School and plans to practice medicine in developing countries. The oldest of 13 -- soon to be 14 -- children, Loftus received scholarships to attend community college and another Cooke scholarship toward a degree at the University of Maryland at Baltimore County.

Loftus hopes the award will make his transition into working in developing countries easier because he won't have loans to pay off.

"With all the studying you have to do and medical school, there is no time for a job, so loans are really the only option for me," Loftus said. "That would have significantly offset my career choices."

Students were nominated for the scholarships by the undergraduate schools they attended. Each school could propose two students, and a total of 977 people were nominated. Winners were chosen based on academic achievement, financial need and community involvement.

"We want to make sure students don't have to scramble for that last dollar to pay for their education," said Wyner, explaining why the foundation gives full scholarships.

Now that Najmi doesn't have to worry about paying for school, she said she plans to work on her nonprofit group, join business clubs and maybe even take part in the dance club. Learning cultural dances is a hobby.

"That is the one very selfish, personal thing I do," she said.